Walker and Hudson Young<\/a> on Monday, sparking fresh banter ahead of Australia\u2019s third World Cup match.<\/p>\nAnd no one is immune, with Panthers veteran Liam Martin also copping it with his future up in the air.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re all getting into one another going \u2018where are you looking at on realestate.com?\u2019\u201d he laughed. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just banter, but what the group does really well is we don\u2019t let it distract us. Once we\u2019re training, we\u2019re on and we\u2019re focused on what the job at hand is.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn that downtime, we can have that laugh so it\u2019s a good balance.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Young news was particularly pertinent for Martin, who plays the same position and will attract huge offers from rival clubs once he hits the open market. <\/p>\n
The Raiders offered the edge forward a club record deal worth roughly $4.4m over four years, but that wasn\u2019t enough to convince him to stay, with the PNG Chiefs the favourites to sign him. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey all said \u2018Marto, you don\u2019t mind Canberra, do you?\u2019 It\u2019s pretty funny,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cNone of us really expected it, so we were pretty blindsided by it. It\u2019s going to be an interesting couple of weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n
Martin\u2019s preference is to stay at Penrith who have some big decisions coming up, with Nathan Cleary, Isaah Yeo and Moses Leota just some of the stars set to become free agents on November 1. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s pretty tricky because we\u2019ve got a lot of boys to get done,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve got our co-captains and Moses Leota, so hopefully fingers crossed we can work out a deal and I stay there.<\/p>\n
\u201cI absolutely love being there. It\u2019s still my No.1 choice to stay, so hopefully we can work out a deal. But that\u2019s the reality of football that sometimes it doesn\u2019t play out.\u201d<\/p>\n
Storm skipper Harry Grant has also been in the headlines lately, with the Titans reportedly prepared to offer him the world to lure him back to Queensland.<\/p>\n
The world\u2019s best dummy-half has a player option to remain in Melbourne for 2028, but that has to be activated by November 1. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere are a lot more conversations to be had with everything,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been in camp, so we haven\u2019t really had any opportunities. I was in Bali for a few weeks before that, so I wanted to get away from footy and reset coming into this arena.<\/p>\n
\u201cI knew this time would be pretty busy, but then there\u2019ll be some conversations off the back of it. <\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone\u2019s got their own teams in their corner, and you\u2019re sort of working it through with your team. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m pretty fortunate with the people we\u2019ve got in Melbourne. The relationships that I\u2019ve got with those guys is pretty transparent and we\u2019re talking through all that.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s part of the game at this time of year. If you look across the board, it\u2019s going to be a big part of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Grant said the contract intrigue could be a distraction for some players, but they were all professional enough to focus on the job at hand, which is to win the World Cup. <\/p>\n
That includes Walker, who has been able to dodge the intense Sydney spotlight while in camp in Townsville this week. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s all right. I guess everyone has seen the news, so you can\u2019t hide away from it,\u201d Grant said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s in camp, which is probably a really good place for him. It\u2019s an opportunity for him to keep training and keep worrying about his footy.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m sure Sammy will be fine. There\u2019s probably a bit more to dive into. I think him and his team are the ones that know what that looks like.\u201d<\/p>\n
Originally published as Liam Martin and Harry Grant address futures as NRL free agency frenzy hits Kangaroos<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sam Walker\u2019s contract situation is the talk of the town in rugby league, but things will get 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